About a dozen regional companies involved in the renewable-energy business have organized a trade association and political action committee aimed at promoting their industry in the N.C. General Assembly.

The Renewable Energy Association effort comes as fears rise that Republicans in key positions in the legislature may look to eliminate or revise tax incentives and renewable-energy standards that support the industry in North Carolina.

Shawn LeMond of the Sustainable Energy Community Development Co. in Davidson says the new association hopes to raise $100,000 by year end for lobbying activities in 2013. And the group’s Renewable Energy Association Legislative Political Action Committee, or REAL-PAC, intends to raise $250,000 for the legislative primaries and general election in 2014.

LeMond and Mike Whitson of Paradigm Consulting Group, also in Davidson, have been the driving forces behind the newly chartered organizations.

The association is assembling an interim board. LeMond says the board will have 9 to 11 members. It already includes representatives of Daetwyler Clean Energy of Huntersville, which makes solar racking systems, and The Reznick Group, a Charlotte-based tax and business advisory firm.

Whitson will chair the board.

LeMond says the association will take a more direct political approach to the industry’s needs than the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association. Julie Robinson, NCSEA’s government affairs director, says the two organizations are working closely together. But LeMond’s group will concentrate solely on the General Assembly, while NCSEA continues its efforts there, at the N.C. Utilities Commission and more broadly in education about and promotion of renewables in North Carolina.

“They have a very specific and focused role,” Robinson says.

LeMond agrees. Since NCSEA’s status limits its political activities, the Renewable Energy Association was organized as a 501(c)6 organization, which has greater political leeway.

The new association essentially operates as a super PAC, able to raise money to support issues such as tax incentives, legislation allowing renewable-energy companies to sell power directly to customers or renewable-energy standards.

REAL-PAC will contribute money directly to politicians in both parties who support the renewables industry, LeMond says.